Three Girls Injured After Falling From Ferris Wheel

Three girls were injured at an eastern Tennessee county fair Monday night when a Ferris wheel seat overturned and sent them plunging more than 30 feet to the ground.

“It was like watching water pouring from a glass,” witness Gregory Lynthacum told WJHL. “They bounced off the metal bridging of the ride and eventually hit the ground.”

The girls fell 35 to 45 feet from the ride at the Greene County Fair around 6:15 p.m., police said.

The oldest of the girls is 16, police said, though no other information about them was immediately provided. Authorities did not release updates on their conditions.

The cause of the accident is unknown, and the fair shut down all rides for the night for investigations.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened,” the fair wrote on its Facebook page. “Please keep these families in your prayers.”

The incident happened two days after a 10-year-old Kansas boy died from a neck injury after riding the Verruckt, a water slide at Kansas City’s Schlitterbahn Waterpark. The ride, standing at 168 feet and seven inches, holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s tallest water slide.